People

Vinson Doyle, Ph.D.

Vinson Doyle earned his Ph.D. in Biology at the New York Botanical Garden and the City University of New York — Graduate Center and is now an Assistant Professor of Mycology @ the LSU AgCenter. His interests in evolution and biodiversity are at the plant/fungal interface. He uses tools of phylogenetics and population genetics to explore the natural history of many organisms, with a particular affinity for fungal symbionts of plants. Contact: vdoyle[at]agcenter.lsu.edu

We have had a great group of people come through the lab. See who is here now and who has moved on to bigger and better things.

RESEARCH ASSOCIATES

Haley Hutchins

Haley has been working in the lab for a few years. She started in the lab as an undergraduate researcher with support from a College of Agriculture Undergraduate Research grant. She presented her work on the diversity of Colletotrichum species associated with Louisiana plants at two different undergraduate research symposia at LSU. She recently (2016) graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Biology.

GRADUATE STUDENTS

Zac Carver

Zac was imported to Louisiana from Oklahoma (recent graduate of OU), but has lived many places (we are still not sure where he is from). He is diving head first into the world of Cercospora systematics and population genetics and trying to tease apart the cryptic biology of the CLB and PSS soybean pathogen, Cercospora cf. flagellaris.

Teddy Garcia

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCHERS

Hannah Tonry

Hannah recently joined the lab at the end of her freshman year as a Biology major. She is currently away for the summer making an impact elsewhere [photo shows her providing medical support in Puerto Penasco, Mexico], but we are excited that she has committed to returning in the fall. She will be working with Haley until she gets oriented to the lab, but will soon be working to develop diagnostic tools to track changes in the populations of various Cercospora species on soybean in the United States.

Caroline Ruppert

Veronica Bras

Veronica comes to us from Universidade Federal de Viçosa in Minas Gerais, Brazil.

FORMER GRADUATE STUDENTS

Josiene Silva Veloso

Josiene Silva Veloso was a visiting Ph.D. student from Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco (UFRPE), Recife, Brasil. She has came to work with us on Colletotrichum systematics, specifically species associated with wild and domestic cashew (Anacardium). She is enthusiastic about fungi, but she is not so enthusiastic about the cold (see her in NYC here trying to see her breath)! She will be defending her thesis in February 2017.

Sebastian Albu

Sebastian Albu recently finishded his Ph.D. in Plant Pathology and is now a postdoc at UC Davis. His research interests include: (1) using phylogenetics and genomics to identify the fungal pathogens associated with Cercospora leaf blight and purple seed stain, two soybean diseases occurring worldwide. It has long been thought that a single species of Cercospora causes these diseases, but we know now that at least three different, morphologically indistinguishable species cause similar symptoms. (2) Developing diagnostic molecular markers for rapid and accurate identification of pathogenic fungi and other biologically important organisms. (3) Biodiversity of subtropical and tropical fungi, including non-pathogenic phylloplane yeasts, yeast-like relatives and endophytes within the smut lineages of Ustilaginomycotina.

Willie Anderson dos Santos Vieira

Willie Anderson dos Santos Vieira was a visiting Ph.D. student from Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Recife, Brasil. He came to us from the lab of Dr. Marcos Câmara and was coadvised by Vinson to work on Colletotrichum systematics and population genetics. He has since returned to Recife and recently (February 2016) defended his PhD.

FORMER UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCHERS

Caroline Baer

Caroline worked on developing new phylogenetic markers for Colletotrichum systematics with support from a Supervised Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) grant from NSF and the Louisiana Board of Regents as well as assisting with several other projects. She was recently accepted into the Pharmacy program at Xavier University. Congratulations and good luck!

Candace Hernandez

We miss the levity she brought to the lab, but are happy to report that she is not far away. Candace took some of the skills she gained in the lab with us to Pennington Biomedical Research Center where she is now a Research Project Assistant.